Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Aromatherapy Rose Oil

As a massage therapist, I am very familiar with the use of oils for aromatherapy. I always love it when the opportunity presents itself to make my own. The rose oil shown below is one of my favorites to create because it comes directly from my own roses. In fact, I have so many old-fashioned roses that if you closed your eyes, you'd be hard pressed not to think you were in a Victorian Era garden by the heavenly scent.

As you can see, lots of the rose petals fall before I get a chance to harvest them. These white ones go as quickly as they come and they serve more as a nice looking contrast to the pink ones when infusing in the bottle. For the true scent of the rose oil, the pink ones are the ultimate.

Harvesting the petals is the most fun, yet it's important to avoid the flying creatures who love them as much as I do. Bees are by the thousands and getting stung can be a hazard of the trade. I have avoided it thus far, but only by luck !

So here we are after picking fresh rose petals. For today, I'm using a small bottle (a spice bottle in fact), and half filling it with almond oil (grape seed is nice too). I squeeze in 1-2 vitamin E capsules contents to preserve the oil also. Home infused oils can go rancid quite quickly and if you're going to put the work in to make your own aromatherapy oil, you might as well take a few minutes to add something that will preserve it a bit longer.

Then it's a simple matter of packing the jar with rose petals. This 4-5 oz bottle holds about 1 cup of rose petals so you can see why pure rose essential oil might be just a bit pricey. Once the bottle is packed with petals, I continue to fill it slowly with more oil until it completely covers the top layer of rose petals. This is important. If any of the petals stick out from the oil itself, they will mold and spoil the entire bottle.

I then set the bottle in a warm window and allow time and the sun to do their part in drawing the natural rose oil from the petals and infusing it into the almond oil. I will watch it over the next week and make sure to top off the oil level as needed so no rose petals are exposed. Then it's simply a matter of the "sniff" test to know when it's time to remove the petals and strain the oil for use.

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I have lots of interests as a freelance writer and natural health practitioner. With an array of different skills and techniques I've picked up over time, sharing what I know with others on the quest for optimal health is one of my passions. Follow my blog: Journeys of Body, Mind and Spirit, and see if any of the information there resonates with you.
My other blog, The Maine Reason, is filled with projects, ideas and a little bit about my lifestyle here in the state of Maine. Enjoy.